but this reaction... Was she embarrassed by him?
“I’ve had better days, but yes, I’m fine,” she said, clearly lying to him as she had one arm wrapped around her stomach as if she were trying to hold herself together.
“I don’t know how the media were alerted to our presence at the opera last night. I know my people didn’t say anything,” he said. “I’ve got a call into the police department to get rid of the paparazzi who are hanging out downstairs. We’ll get on top of this and get it sorted out.”
“Will we?” she asked. “Why?”
“Why? I thought we liked hanging out together,” he said. “Isn’t that reason enough? Why don’t you let me come in and we can talk about it?”
She shook her head. “If you come in, we will probably do more than talk and I need to be clearheaded about this, Slade.”
He smiled at the way she said it. “You are being clearheaded. I promise to be on my best behavior.”
Melinda’s building was sleek and modern, a tall high-rise made of glass and steel, but her condo was much like the woman herself, warm and welcoming. The entryway had an antique hall tree, on which she always kept a vase with fresh-cut flowers in it. Moving into the main open living space, he noted the two large couches as well as two armchairs, all in cordovan leather that he knew from experience were buttery soft and the most comfortable chairs he’d ever sat in.
Her coffee table was made of reclaimed wood, where she kept art books on her latest obsession. Right now, he knew she was researching Dalí for an exhibit the art council wanted to bring to Houston. But she also had a few magazines that she kept tucked in a basket on the lower shelf of the table. She’d even started storing the business magazines he liked to read there.
Her kitchen was demarked by a tall countertop with high-back stools. The cushions matched the colors of the large Cruz Ortiz painting that hung above her fireplace. The colors of the Ortiz painting were bright and reflected, in Melinda’s words, the vibrancy of Texas.
She stood there between the living room and the kitchen, watching him with her eyes wide and troubled. He had done this to her. It hadn’t been his intent, but he was bringing scandal to her door the way her father and her sister had. Something he’d promised himself he wouldn’t do.
“I like it when you’re at your best,” she said, then shook her head. “See? No. You can’t come in. I’m not me when you’re around.”
He didn’t like the way she said that. As if he were a bad influence on her. “I think you’re more yourself with me than you’ve ever been before.”
Melinda wished she’d left the door closed, but manners had forced her to open it and now the plan she’d hatched to break up with Slade and get back to her normal life wasn’t going to be easy at all. He stood there, looking so hot, his square jaw with a little bit of stubble, his thick black hair curled a little on the top and his lips firm. And oh, her stars, she really wanted nothing more than to blurt out everything that had happened since Angela had left that morning. But she hadn’t yet decided what she was going to do about anything.
“I’m actually glad you stopped by,” she said. “Can I get you something to drink? Maybe some sweet tea or lemonade?”
“I’m fine. I’m more concerned that you haven’t returned my texts or calls. What’s up?”
“Oh, well, are you sure you don’t want something to drink? Even water?” she asked. She was stalling and though she normally prided herself on being brave and facing difficult situations, she was going to give herself a pass today. She really had more than one woman should have to deal with. An image of the seven—SEVEN—pregnancy tests she’d taken lined up on her bathroom counter flashed into her mind.
“I’m positive,” he said. “What’s going on, babe? I know you don’t like the media spotlight, but it was one kiss and, honestly, the photo isn’t that bad. Are you concerned that you might be linked to the rumors about your father? I know I’m probably the last man you want by your side while murder rumors are swirling.”
The murder victim had been found at the Texas Cattleman’s Club newest site in Houston, at her father’s Perry Construction site, and the victim was Vincent Hamm, a Perry Holdings employee, and her father was on the short list of suspects.
She shrugged, searching for the words. She couldn’t just blurt out that she liked to rise above scandal. That she expected more of herself and her family or that she didn’t like for anyone to see her looking so...well, totally enthralled by him. Slade gave off that aura of danger and that was part of what drew her to him, but the truth was she didn’t want the world—rather, her world, the Houston society circle she traveled in—to see that embrace and judge her.
“It’s a lot of things. Frankly, I think we both know we aren’t right for each other,” she said. “I figured I was a novelty for you, and you’d get bored and break up with me before this.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not bored. Are you?” he asked. His tone was almost belligerent, but she could sense the vulnerability beneath it.
She’d learned that being Carlo Bartelli’s son brought with it a lot of expectation of the kind of man Slade was. And he spent a lot of his time pretending not to be upset by being prejudged by his last name.
She chewed her lower lip before she realized what she was doing. She’d never be bored with Slade. He was exciting and everything that she’d always dreamed of finding in a man. But dreams weren’t reality and she knew that better than most. She’d always wanted a picture-perfect family and hers was far from that.
“No, I’m not bored, but we really aren’t cut out to be a couple. I mean, when I saw that photo I blushed remembering everything that followed. But you... What did you do?”
He came closer to her and she stepped back, which made him pause. She wasn’t normally someone who backed down from anything, but honestly, she wasn’t prepared to be in the middle of this kind of mess. It was one thing to stand on the sidelines and offer advice to Angela or sympathy to her father, but to have the papers talking about her? That wasn’t in her plan. But heck, when had anything gone according to plan since Slade had come into her life?
“Are you afraid of me?”
“No, never,” she admitted. “It’s me. I have no self-control around you, Slade.”
“From my point of view, that’s a good thing,” he said with that wicked smile of his that made her remember all the reasons why she’d kissed him at the opera the night before.
She felt the blush creeping up her neck and cheeks and shook her head. She wished she could stop doing that, but she’d never been able to control it. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The reason why we need to break up. I mean, is that too high school for us?”
“No,” he said.
“No?” Which part was he saying no to? Did he think they should stop seeing each other? Or that the term breakup wasn’t too high school? Why did she do that? She always asked complex questions because her mind was constantly running with a million thoughts.
“Both.
